🔗 Share this article

25% of the global residents lives less than three miles of active oil, gas, and coal facilities, potentially endangering the well-being of more than 2 billion human beings as well as vital ecosystems, per pioneering research.

Global Spread of Fossil Fuel Operations

In excess of 18.3k petroleum, gas, and coal mining locations are now distributed in one hundred seventy countries globally, covering a large area of the world's surface.

Nearness to extraction sites, refineries, pipelines, and further coal and gas operations increases the threat of tumors, breathing ailments, cardiac problems, premature birth, and death, while also posing grave threats to water supplies and air cleanliness, and damaging terrain.

Close Proximity Risks and Planned Expansion

Approximately 463 million individuals, counting over 120 million youth, presently dwell inside 1km of fossil fuel operations, while another 3.5k or so new facilities are now proposed or in progress that could require one hundred thirty-five million additional residents to face fumes, gas flares, and accidents.

The majority of active projects have created toxic concentrated areas, turning nearby communities and essential ecosystems into so-called expendable regions – heavily toxic locations where economically disadvantaged and disadvantaged communities bear the disproportionate weight of contact to toxins.

Medical and Ecological Impacts

This analysis details the harmful medical consequences from extraction, refining, and transportation, as well as illustrating how spills, burning, and building destroy irreplaceable environmental habitats and undermine human rights – especially of those living close to oil, gas, and coal mining infrastructure.

The report emerges as world leaders, not including the USA – the largest past producer of greenhouse gases – assemble in Belém, Brazil, for the 30th annual environmental talks in the context of rising disappointment at the lack of progress in ending oil, gas, and coal, which are causing global ecological crisis and rights abuses.

"The fossil fuel industry and its state sponsors have claimed for decades that economic growth depends on oil, gas, and coal. But research shows that in the name of prosperity, they have instead promoted profit and revenues unchecked, infringed entitlements with near-complete immunity, and harmed the air, biosphere, and marine environments."

Global Negotiations and Worldwide Urgency

Cop30 takes place as the the Asian nation, Mexico, and Jamaica are dealing with extreme weather events that were strengthened by higher atmospheric and ocean heat levels, with states under mounting pressure to take strong steps to control fossil fuel companies and stop extraction, subsidies, licenses, and use in order to comply with a historic judgment by the world court.

Last week, revelations revealed how in excess of over 5.3k coal and petroleum lobbyists have been allowed admission to the UN environmental negotiations in the recent years, hindering emission reductions while their employers extract historic volumes of petroleum and natural gas.

Research Approach and Data

The statistical research is based on a groundbreaking geospatial project by scientists who analyzed data on the documented locations of coal and gas facilities sites with census information, and records on critical environments, greenhouse gas emissions, and native communities' areas.

33% of all operational oil, coal, and natural gas sites coincide with one or more essential ecosystems such as a marsh, forest, or waterway that is teeming with biodiversity and important for CO2 absorption or where environmental deterioration or catastrophe could lead to environmental breakdown.

The true global scale is likely higher due to omissions in the recording of oil and gas sites and incomplete demographic data across nations.

Natural Inequality and Tribal Peoples

The findings reveal long-standing environmental unfairness and bias in exposure to petroleum, gas, and coal sectors.

Indigenous peoples, who account for one in twenty of the world's residents, are unfairly vulnerable to life-shortening oil and gas operations, with one in six locations positioned on tribal areas.

"We endure intergenerational struggle exhaustion … Our bodies won't survive [this]. We have never been the instigators but we have borne the force of all the aggression."

The expansion of fossil fuels has also been connected with land grabs, heritage destruction, social fragmentation, and economic hardship, as well as force, internet intimidation, and legal actions, both penal and civil, against population advocates non-violently challenging the development of pipelines, extraction operations, and additional facilities.

"We do not pursue profit; we just desire {what